In 1929 William Fox purchased a former Broadway theatre called the Embassy. He changed the format from a $2 show twice a day to a continuous 25 cent programme establishing the first newsreel theatre in the USA. The idea was such a success that Fox and his backers announced they would start a chain of newsreel theatres across the USA.

The Cineac Chain of Cinemas were created by Reginald Ford, son of a London based Jewish merchant named Joe Ford [birth name: Joel Flegeltaub]. The Cineac Chain consisted of somewhere between 15 and 20 cinemas throughout Europe.